


let's meet again, when we're whole

by violetstorm



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Friendship, Gen, KHUx References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16432394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetstorm/pseuds/violetstorm
Summary: Naminé finds a boy in Castle Oblivion and forges an unlikely friendship with him.





	let's meet again, when we're whole

The voices behind her grew louder and _louder_ and Naminé struggled to breathe as she hurried, as quickly and quietly as she could, through the corridors. She needed a room, she needed an exit, she needed _anything, something_ that would hide her from the Organization, but all she had were endless white corridors.

 _Please,_ she begged silently, and she wondered if it would hurt when they caught her as she sat down against a wall, chest heaving up and down. It’s no use. Castle Oblivion was a labyrinth. She was foolish to try and escape in the first place. She placed her head on her knees, shutting her eyes and praying that Marluxia and Larxene would walk the other way.

_here._

Naminé’s head shot straight up. A voice— she’d heard a voice, right next to her, but there was nobody there. Nothing at all, except… except a door. There was a door in the wall, right in front of her. Where had it come from? She was positive it hadn’t been there when she stopped, but she had no time to ponder its mystery. Marluxia and Larxene were coming closer.

She pushed against the door and it opened easily into— surprise, surprise— a white room, circular in nature. In the center, there lay a single chair that resembled a throne and a young boy was sitting down on it. He wasn’t dressed in a black cloak.

“Hello..?” Naminé whispered, her voice a scream in her ears. The boy didn’t respond, so she cautiously walked closer. As she neared, she noticed that the boy was… sleeping? His chin was resting on his chest and his eyes were shut. He was breathing yes, but didn’t react at all to Naminé’s appearance.

“Did you… lead me here?”

Nothing.

“Were you the one that… protected me?”

There was no answer, but something about him told Naminé that she could trust him, that she wasn’t led here for no reason. She smiled softly, sitting down on the arm of the chair.

“...Thank you. I didn’t know what I would have done. My name is… Naminé. What is your name?”

As expected, he didn’t respond. Naminé, for a moment, questioned if she should probe into his memory— it would help her find out why he was here and who he was and if she could trust him or not. But, she had more urgent matters.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could stay here, but they’ll find me eventually. I need to go back to my room before they realize I’m gone. Can you… can you lead me to it?”

The walls in the room didn’t feel oppressive, like the hallways of Castle Oblivion. It was like time in the room had stopped. Naminé slipped off the throne and went back to the door. With one last look at the boy, she opened it, peered around. Marluxia and Larxene were nowhere in sight and the hallway…

She recognized it! Her room would be just to the left— but how? She had run for what felt like hours from her prison, taking twists and turns and somehow she had ended up back where she started. No, not somehow.

Naminé turned around.

“You listened to me..! Thank you, again. I hope we can meet again soon.”

She shut the door and it seemed to vanish into the walls. When she got back to her room, Naminé picked up her sketchbook and began to draw.

* * *

 Naminé hadn’t stopped thinking about the boy ever since she first met him, to the point where she was almost tempted to tell somebody— even if that somebody was a nobody— about him, but she chose to hold her tongue. Whoever the boy was, even if he was an enemy, he didn’t deserve to be at the mercy of the Organization.

He was probably awake by now, anyway, and had moved on.

_(selfishly, Naminé wished that he was still in the castle with her)_

Vexen, Lexaeus and Zexion were conducting experiments in the castle’s basements. Marluxia, Larxene and Axel were doing… _something_ in the upper floors. She didn’t know what, and didn’t dare ask, what with Marluxia’s unsettling gaze always on her.

But one day, Marluxia wasn’t around, dealing with a heartless invasion to the castle, and that was Naminé’s chance to find the boy again. Like before, she had to simply wish for the room to appear and it did.

Inside, the boy was still sleeping on the throne and he was completely unresponsive to Naminé, despite her speaking directly into his ear, despite her shaking his arm, despite everything. Naminé sat down next to him.

“...You are not going to wake up, are you?” she said. “You’re stuck here, in this room. Almost like I am. Did the Organization trap you here, or was it somebody else? No… if they trapped you here, they would have said something about it, wouldn’t they?”

Silence. Not even the sounds of the heartless outside the castle, Larxene’s maniacal laughter or Axel’s flames burning through hordes could be heard inside the room.

“I… don’t know why I’m here. Or what I am. The Organization told me that I was a nobody, which meant that I don’t exist and I have no right to. I can’t feel anything, either. Are you a human? Or are you a nobody?”

The boy’s chest rose and fell with every breath, the only indication that he was alive. Tentatively, Naminé placed a hand to the boy’s chest. Then she pressed her ear against his chest, personal boundaries be damned.

The boy… he didn’t have a _heartbeat._ Yet he was breathing, his body was warm, so that meant he was alive but his heart was… gone?

“You don’t have a heart,” Naminé breathed. “Does that mean that you are a nobody like me? But if you’re a nobody, that means that…”

Marluxia and Larxene and Axel and Saix and Xigbar and Xemnas and the lesser nobodies like the assassins and the dragoons… all of them were hostile, evil and cruel, even to a nobody like her. What was to say that the boy was any different?

Naminé jumped off the throne, resolve billowing in her chest. She had to find out who this boy was, and there was only one way to do it.

She shut her eyes and probed deep into the boy’s memory. It was like she had been hit by Slow, her movements through his memory sluggish at best. Everything was foggy and blurry. That was what happened when she tried to look into the memories of the other nobodies as well.

Naminé clenched her teeth, strengthening her concentration. Slowly, the blurs began to take shape, into… people and… weapons? There was a man with a scarred face and a woman with a gentle smile and… Xemnas..?

No, it wasn’t Xemnas. No, not quite. His hair was brown and Naminé felt the boy’s love and affection for the man and the man’s kind nature through the boy’s memory. The man was strong and gentle, and it was nothing like what Naminé felt when Marluxia led her into the Room Where Nothing Gathers, where she was scrutinized by Xemnas’ cold stare.

Impossible. Memories couldn’t lie. How could the boy see such good in Xemnas? Unless that man in the boy’s memory was Xemnas when he was whole.

Naminé left the room that day with more questions than she had answers to, still unsure of whether she could trust the boy or not.

* * *

 The next time she arrived, Naminé went straight into the boy’s memory. She saw worlds filled with colour and people of all kinds. Heroes-in-training and princesses and little men that lived in a house in the forest. Nothing like the cold, harsh white of Castle Oblivion or The World That Never Was.

The boy never stopped sleeping and never reacted, even when Naminé searched deep in his memory.

She kept seeing those three people over and over again. The man with the scarred face was a mentor figure and the woman and the Xemnas-but-not-Xemnas man were like an older, doting pair of siblings. The boy cared for them greatly— how else could his memories of them be so strong even when he had no heart?

They all had “keyblades.” Naminé had only heard the Organization talk about it in passing and speak of harnessing its power to control Kingdom Hearts, but she had never seen one herself until she went into the boy’s memories.

_era...qu..a_

A ghostly voice whispered in her ear without warning and Naminé jumped. She listened closely to the sounds in the boy’s memory, as if she was trying to relive it herself.

_ma...ter... eraqus_

_aq…..ua_

Names! She had names! Names she had never heard of. A “Master” Eraqus and an Aqua. That must have been the scarred man and the woman. But, who was the last man?

Naminé had an awful sinking feeling that told her she already knew his name.

* * *

 Naminé was in her room, drawing in her sketchbook when she heard another whisper. It was louder, much louder this time.

_name’s... ventus... call me…_

_ven._

She looked up in shock, wildly swinging her head back and forth. Axel, who stood on the other side of the room with Marluxia, took notice and chuckled.

“What’s the matter? Had a nightmare?” His voice was taunting. Had they not heard anything?

Naminé pursed her lip and flipped to another page in her sketchbook. _Hello Ventus. I’m glad you could tell me your name._

* * *

More and more of Ventus’ memories filled Castle Oblivion’s walls. Occasionally, Naminé would turn her head around to see herself in the middle of space, surrounded by stars and worlds and she’d see people walking down the corridors of the castle, people that she never saw before.

Ventus saw all that.

Naminé would hear voices of all sorts, from light banter to cruel laughter, all things that Ventus heard. It was like he was sharing bits and pieces of his life with her, like he really was a friend to her.

Now, Naminé didn’t even have to find Ventus to search his memory. She could simply do it while locked in her room, but it felt rude to do so and she took every chance she could to go see Ventus. Besides, it was nice to talk to somebody who wasn’t wearing a black coat.

“Hi, Ventus. I’m back again. Nothing much has happened here. The Organization is still doing their own thing and they just keep telling me that “our time will come.” That is when I will be of use to them. I hope it is not dangerous.”

She told Ventus about her days spent in the castle— but what was there to say? It was the same old white walls and white floors and nothing new happened except for Larxene finding a new way to frighten her.

Ventus didn’t seem to mind. He continued to let Naminé share his memories of the places he’d been and the friends that he made, as if saying, “Here, you can have some friends, too.”

Without realizing it, Naminé had become Ventus' friend. Not that she minded.

* * *

That wasn’t to say that Naminé hadn’t had her share of close calls. After speaking to Ventus, she had left the room only to see Axel walking in the same direction of the room. Axel hadn’t seen her, and Naminé only had a short amount of time to go back to her room before somebody would find her gone, but Axel was going to find _Ventus._

She followed quietly, and Axel didn’t make any turns, didn’t stray from his path; he kept continuing on the route to Ventus’ room.

_No, no!_

Naminé had to stop him, oh, but he’ll get suspicious and try to find out what she was hiding but she couldn’t let him find Ventus and hurt him but how could she stop him? She’ll be punished and she’ll never be able to be let out of her room and she wouldn’t be able to see Ventus again and—

The room was gone.

It wasn’t there. Axel had passed by where the room’s exact location was, yet the door was no longer there.

Naminé breathed easy.

* * *

However, one night (or was it day? Time had no concept in Castle Oblivion) Naminé overhead the Organization members arguing.

“It’s just a wild goose chase we’re on. We have no idea what we’re trying to find or where in the hell it is… what does Xemnas have to do with a place like this anyways?” Axel’s voice was the loudest, and it burned with an anger that made Naminé flinch.

“Axel,” Marluxia said. “Are you questioning our Superior’s orders? I’m sure that he has good reason for us to be searching.”

“Like you know what we’re searching for.”

“It is a room and that is as much as we need to know. Now, Axel, I believe you still have something to do, no?”

The sounds of muttering and a dark corridor opening resounded through the hallway and the voices stopped. Naminé’s blood ran cold.

 _They were searching for the room with Ventus._ That had to be the explanation. Ventus knew Xemnas and Xemnas was searching for him for a reason that couldn’t be good.

She had to protect Ventus.

* * *

She had to find out who Ventus was and why the Organization wanted him. Naminé watched over Ventus sadly.

“I’m sorry, but I have to do this. I need to know who you are. I’m going to go farther into your memories, alright? I promise, it won’t hurt but… please don’t hate me for this.”

Naminé sat down next to Ventus and shut her eyes, diving down into his memories, to the point where she couldn’t tell where reality began to blend into Ventus’ memories. She felt like she was _there_ , herself, in his memories. She could see what he saw and feel the pain that he did and hear what he heard and none of it was good.

Naminé had been thrown directly into a forest that lay under a rapidly-darkening sky. There were heartless all around and multiple people wielding that mythical-keyblade and it looked as though a great battle had taken place— or was still going on.

The air was filled with sheer cries of terror and hearts floating into the sky, where they would vanish and on the ground, the heartless vastly outnumbered the humans. There was a loud shriek in Naminé’s ears and she turned to see a keybearer get devoured by a heartless. And another. And another. Through it all, Ventus was there, standing just off to the side, holding his keyblade in shaking hands.

Another scream and another heart lifted into the air.

There were four keybearers left now, and Ventus hadn’t moved, didn’t do anything to save the next keybearer that fell to a rather large heartless, crushed under its fist.

Three left.

With bloodstained keyblades, the remaining keybearers charged, no longer fighting to win, but to survive, and Ventus continued to watch, frozen in spot. As still as a statue, his short breaths and trembling hands the only signs that he was alive.

Do something, a keybearer shouted. Don’t just stand there, _help us!_ Help us! Please, we need—

The keybearer’s voice was drowned out as one shadow leapt onto them, then another and another, until they were a moving mass of black and purple (and red).

Another heart flew and there were two keybearers left, not fighting, but dying. One lay on the ground in the other’s lap, blood staining the ground a funny shade of red as the shadows moved closer. The first keybearer was completely limp as the other one shook their body, tears cutting pale tracks through dirt-encrusted cheeks.

Ven, help us, please! Keep— just keep the shadows away! She needs healing, I just need a second, _please!_ Ven! _Please!_ We can save her, I-I just need to heal her!

Then Ventus finally moved, if only to take a step back, shaking his head. I-I can’t, Ventus said, his voice small. I’m not… there’s too many of them, I—

_Ven!_

I’m sorry, I can’t! I’m too—

A heartless raised its fist with a roar and time seemed to slow in Ventus’ memory. Slowly, slowly, the heartless brought its fist down, a blur through the air, aiming for the two keybearers and—

_“No!”_

A scream tore from Naminé’s throat, and she stumbled backwards, collapsing onto the ground, back in the white, white walls of the castle. Her chest heaved with every breath, as if she had truly been there, in that forest with the heartless.

_(she placed a palm to her chest, calming a racing heart that wasn’t there)._

Those memories were filled with darkness and an animalistic fear, one that had clawed at Ventus’ heart, holding him hostage and Naminé had only experienced it as a memory, as an onlooker to a crime. Ventus had experienced it first-hand: the suffering, the trauma, the death.

Ventus slumbered on.

* * *

“Who are you, Ventus?” Naminé asked and she never wanted to hear him speak more. “I don’t understand anything. The more that I look into your memories, the more I get confused.”

* * *

Marluxia was in every single minute of Naminé’s non-existence. He was always lurking in the corner of his vision and even when he wasn’t visible, the sickeningly-sweet scent of roses would remind Naminé that he was still there with her. The only time she was free of his grasp was when she was with Ventus.

Until she saw Marluxia in Ventus’ memory.

His hair was shorter, and he wasn’t wearing a black coat. He looked… friendlier, almost, and he was joking with Ventus. Ventus was surrounded by his friends— not the three from earlier— and they were all enjoying their time together. Like friends do.

Marluxia was like the caretaker of the group, keeping the younger ones in line and stopping them from being too reckless. He would teach Ventus tricks with his keyblade and he was cheery. When he would smile, it wasn’t with malicious intent.

But _how?_ How could memory-Marluxia and memory-Xemnas have been so close to Ventus’ heart and such nice people, only for Naminé to know them as monsters?

* * *

  _(then sora came along and Naminé had no time to talk to ventus and ask him why)_

* * *

You are a nobody. You do not exist. You are not meant to exist. You cannot feel. You should be dead. You are a nobody. You are a nobody.

DiZ’s words hammered the inside of Naminé’s head as she worked on putting together Sora’s memories. With her time spent between being hurt by DiZ and helping Sora, Naminé had no time to talk to Ventus and the guilt (the most guilt a nobody could feel, anyway) was crushing.

You are a nobody. You cannot have friends. You cannot make bonds. You are a nobody.

 _Ventus is my friend,_ Naminé would retort angrily, if only in her head. _He is a nobody and we have a connection._

It was thoughts of Ventus that kept Naminé sane throughout the whole process and it was thoughts of Ventus that plagued her mind when DiZ moved her out of Castle Oblivion and to Twilight Town. Naminé had nearly fought tooth and nail to stop DiZ from taking her from Castle Oblivion (taking her from Ventus), and she had lost.

Riku often made routine checks on Castle Oblivion and whenever Naminé would ask him if he found anybody, Riku would always say no.

Good. That meant that Ventus was still hiding. He could take care of himself— thank goodness for that, as Naminé was completely useless. 

She couldn't even protect her first ever friend.

 _(you are a nobody you're not meant to exist you are a mistake a freak of nature you cannot have friends you cannot feel_ emotions)

* * *

As was everything that had to do with Ventus, Roxas was a confusing mess. He looked exactly like Ventus, acted nothing like him and Naminé had to remind herself that Roxas wasn’t Ventus. How her heart had almost soared when she saw him, hoping that Ventus had awakened at last, only to realize that it was Roxas instead.

That was cruel of her to do, but Naminé wanted nothing more than her friend to be with her.

_(roxas fought so hard to be his own person and Naminé, of all people, could only see ventus when she looked at him)_

* * *

She expected to be there for Ventus. She expected to be the first person he saw when he woke up. She expected he would show her the worlds that he did in his memories.

She expected so much and she was oh, such a fool to. She was a nobody, after all. She was never meant to exist. It was only a matter of time before her time would come.

* * *

“Hi, Ventus.” Naminé sat down on the arm of the throne again. Like old times. Months and grueling months had passed since she passed by the room, to the point where she was sure that she actually _missed_ the cold walls of Castle Oblivion.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come visit. I’ve been so busy and now… I have to leave again. I have to… become whole again. DiZ and Riku took Roxas and placed him in the fake Twilight Town and now, it is only a matter of time before he becomes one with Sora again. And then it will be time for me to return to Kairi.”

She gently placed a hand on his arm. It was warm, so warm. “Don’t worry about me. Nobodies like myself are never meant to exist, after all, and I am going back to where I belong. With Kairi. I-I…” Naminé bowed her head, and moved her hand downwards, so that she was holding onto Ven’s. “I wish I could have met you properly. I wish that… we could have been friends.”

Naminé stood up from the chair for the final time and, with a fond smile, pecked Ven on the cheek. “Goodbye... Ventus.”

_(she was crying when she left and briefly, she wondered if this was what being whole felt like)_

* * *

  _(“I wanted to meet you. At least once,” she said to_ ~~_Ventus?_ ~~ _Roxas, and then he was gone.)_

* * *

 

* * *

There was Terra and Aqua, who looked exactly like they did ten years ago. There was Sora, who Ven had travelled with for ten years. Then there were his friends, Riku and Kairi. But then there was Lea, who was much older and taller now and his existence was a constant reminder to Ven that he had been as good as dead for ten years.

Waking up to a new world was an unfamiliar experience. So much had changed and he had so many new faces to recognize and remember. Ienzo and Even and Xehanort (the younger version of him— just how many Xehanorts were there?!) and Roxas (it was so strange to see somebody with his face, but Ven welcomed Roxas into his heart without hesitation).

Roxas had just finished introducing Ven to Xion in Yen Sid’s tower, and the entire room was filled with a jovial air Ven hadn’t felt since… since before the Mark of Mastery test, when everything went wrong. Everybody was laughing and smiling and it was like they weren’t in the middle of a war. Terra and Aqua were smiling again and they weren't chasing each other across worlds. They were simply enjoying their time together, like the events of the previous ten years hadn't happened.

Then a girl wearing in a simple white dress walked into the room, a sketchbook clutched to her chest and the room went a little quieter. Sora slapped his hand to his forehead.

“Oh, hi! I didn’t know you were here, I thought you were still at— no, never mind. Sorry about that. Ven, there’s still one person you hafta meet,” Sora chirped and he dragged the girl a little closer. The girl, who had blue eyes that were terrifyingly similar to Kairi’s, looked like she was seeing a ghost. Ven was all-too used to it, now that he had a twin, and thought nothing strange of it. He smiled.

“Heya! My name’s Ventus, but you can just call me Ven,” Ven said. He stuck his hand out, but the girl didn’t take it, simply choosing to continue to stare at him. “Um, what’s your name?”

“...My name is Naminé,” the girl whispered and she bowed her head. Ven internally panicked, wondering where he went wrong, the eyes of everybody in the room on him.

“It’s, uh… it’s nice to meet you, Naminé,” Ven said.

The girl, Naminé, lifted her head at last, and Ven was startled to see that there were tears falling from her cheeks and that she was _smiling._

“It’s nice to finally meet you... Ventus."

* * *

_see? i told you we’d meet again._

 

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know what i was doing with this but I know now, without a doubt, that writing this has made me fall in love with Ven&Nami friendship. Let! Them! Be! Friends! In! KH3!
> 
> (sidenote: im sorry roxas i did you dirty here)


End file.
